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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Oh what a world / it seems we live in

Yikes. It's been a while, eh? Let's make this snappy.

So where did we last leave off? I'll start with November 1st, a nice satisfying number. I flew to scenic Beaumont (it's much more fun if you say it with a heavy Texas accent), which I can't actually say anything nice or snide about because I spent a little less than 24 hours at the Hotel Eleganté (which is also more fun if you say it with a heavy Texas accent) and then flew home again. It was a whirlwind visit with Nathan, who'd been invited to lecture at a museum conference that weekend... since he's spent most of the past several years in either South Carolina or Italy, I figured I'd better grab him while he was at least in the same state as me. One dinner at Chili's, two years' worth of photos on his laptop, a dozen rounds of Nerts, and a walk along the edge of the highway later, I was back on my merry way. The tiny, ramshackle Southeast Texas Regional Airport, complete with faded flowered wallpaper in the security corridor, might be my new favorite transportation hub. Seriously.

We didn't manage to get any pictures of us together, so I can't actually prove I saw Nathan, but here are two separate shots, both stolen from his camera. Above: Still Life With Apple Core And USAToday. Below: Please admire the amazing Eurotrash shirt and shiny tie. He's also holding a fake cat who purrs and makes breathing motions. This is why I'm friends with Nathan.

I got back to Austin late Friday night, and Saturday morning was THE KICKATHON! I did 1,000 kicks and didn't even half-ass most of them... okay, at least half of them... (but really, you wouldn't believe the temptation for half-assery when you know you have 846 more kicks to go). I have a couple of pictures that I'll put up at some point, in which you can also se my friend Cindy who'd hurt her ankle but still hobbled through the whole damn thing. In a tutu. To keep everyone's spirits up. Which all seems pretty impressive and dedicated to me, but she steadfastly maintains that she "phoned in" that kickathon. Hee.

The whole thing was actually shockingly pleasant. It was shorter than we'd expected (R didn't even get bored until the very end, really!) and everyone was enthused - or complainy, which bonds people together even more than enthusiasm - and I even got a prize because all of YOU wonderful dear people who donated made me the participant with the most donations! I was honored to accept it on your behalf. You all have thank-you packages soon to be coming your way (complete with odes, for those eligible), but I'm just running a little behind schedule. There's a shocker. That evening we went to Cindy's birthday party, and even got home at an embarrassingly respectable hour thanks to daylight savings.

The next morning (I wasn't even sore from all that kicking! ...which is, ahem, probably more a testiment to my inability to actually kick properly than the presence of actual muscles) we woke up in the dark so R could do the Susan G. Komen 5K run. I had convinced Quincy to come with us and keep me company, so we went and cheered for Richard when he reached the finish line... fortunately he's a speedy little guy so we were in and out of there and eating breakfast tacos at Maria's before some of the 20,000 other participants had even started. So. Many. People. But hey look, you know that guy:

Fast forward to the following Friday, when I flew to Massachusetts for a day and a half of reproductive/social justice networking and training, sponsored by Hampshire College. They put on two of these meetings per year, and it's a pretty wonderful coalition of people... it always charges me up to spend time with so many young, passionate, lovely activists who are doing such amazing things that I feel absolutely puny by comparison. From there I spent a few days at my parents', where my big project was going through all of my old things in storage there and sorting through 10 years' worth of utter and complete crap scraps of paper - scrawled freewrites, notes from high school friends, significant items torn from magazines, posters pulled from walls, impassioned poetry and journal entries - that still live in shoeboxes in a closet because I AM SUCH A COMPULSIVE PACKRAT. I so desperately wanted to throw most of it out. I didn't quite succeed. At least I emptied a couple of boxes. But holy hell, was it ever a two-day odyssey through the tears and tribulations of Adolescent Katie.

I heard rumors, and it made me wonder what Rebecca was up to, and I read the last email I had from her which was in June 2005 and clicked on this blog. And at the end of a very long list - ta da! I feel like I've found the missing clue. Congratulations, Katie and Richard. I hope you're both quite well.Lena